Tag Archives: Blocks

Daffodils and so much more are in bloom, temps have been very moderate for spring, all of which makes staying in the studio a little tough. I also was gone for a week to Florida in January and last week four days to Charleston, SC. I did, however, manage to complete a 16 patch that was started two years ago! I love the brightness of this quilt. All shot cottons were used. These fabrics were a bit challenging to use especially when quilting. I found a secret to using shot cottons is to starch, starch, starch!

It was an appropriate finish for this early Spring – I couldn’t resist a pic with the daffodils. When it was complete, I looked at all the finished quilts in my home (no, I won’t try to give a number!) and decided this quilt was better designated as a Hospice quilt. It should bring some brightness to a patient or family member.

Paper piecing – I enjoy it but at times can wear me out. I just completed a paper pieced border for a wall quilt and wanted to sit and mindlessly sew. The first of the year I cut out several charity quilts so I pulled one out and sewed away! It was all pieced in just a few hours – how fun! It really needed something else, though. The fabric is a bit wild – all generously donated. There is one print among the batiks that is a lizard fabric. Ta Da! I’ll applique a few large lizards! Even better, I used my Scan n’ Cut – what a treat to have precise cutting done in just moments.

All in all, January was a very good sewing month, especially considering I was on vacation for a whole week. I revamped my Work in Progress listing. Yes, I do have more projects, but have not touched some in such a long time I eliminated them from the list for now. I have promised myself to only add charity quilts and gift quilts – there is a wedding gift quilt added to the list. Oh how I want to stay on task and shorten the list. Can I do it? Yes! Will I do it? We’ll see!! Do you have so many projects started it seems overwhelming? Do you have an action plan? I’d love to know how other quilters deal with this.

One of my New Year’s pledges was no new projects until a few bins are empty, charity and gift quilts excepted. I did decide to join a Round Robin with 3 other quilters. Did I break my pledge? Technically, NO! Several years ago I started a paper pieced star that has four sections and 14 pieces per section. A little over the top, don’t you think? I had two sections already done, scrappy style, and just completed the other two sections. I’ve put them together and added a border and I love it! Oh – so many ideas for the center block of the Round Robin. This star was already started so it was the winner and a no-brainer! I’m really ahead of schedule. I even have the scraps and yardage in my box already and we don’t even need to have it done until the end of the month!

Project box filled with scraps and yardage.

I’m excited to design and add borders to the other quilter’s blocks. Don’t know what a Round Robin is? Because we are a small group, we are doing it about every two months. We’ll exchange our project boxes and add a border to that quilter’s block. With just three borders being added, it could finish as a wall hanging. My block, however, is starting out at 14″ so it may be a bit too large for a wall hanging for me. After all three borders have been added, we may choose to add more to our own.

I am excited to try some inventive and creative borders. Borders can add so much to a quilt. Now, the math may end up being a bit challenging for me, but I’m no stranger to that dilemma. Enter husband help! Also, the other 3 quilters are truly talented – I’m a bit intimidated but am up for the challenge!

We got about 6 inches of snow here in NC Friday night which is a great event! I made two pots of soup and am enjoying watching the birds eat the seed I scattered on the driveway. We have bird feeders, but they fight and only allow one bird at a time. Now there have been up to a dozen feasting on the driveway and six different kinds of birds! We have Sparrows, Cardinals, Blue Birds, Thrasher, Finches, and Woodpeckers. Hubby spotted a Blue Jay. Wish I would see him – would be so pretty against the white snow. The rest of the day was spent in the studio sewing. Lucky me! Did you get snow as so many states did? How do you spend your snow days? Is it an event, or the norm, as it was when I lived in New York State?

The very last finish of 2016 was fun!. This colorful and creative pillow was a mix of piecing, applique and decorative stitching. I think the basket background really pops with the polka dots surrounding it. The leaves are felted wool and the flowers are fussy cut cotton prints appliqued onto felted wool. The real joy came when I began doing decorative stitching on the leaves and flowers. There was no plan – I just went with whatever seemed like a good choice at the time. Whoa – I did have to make myself stop because I could have stitched and stitched! This pillow looks really good on my living room sofa. However, kitty likes to paw on it so it is now resting on a guest room bed. It looks pretty there too, I just don’t get to see it very often.

I think my all time favorite finish of 2016 was Prism Arabesque. It continues to bring me joy as it sets on display in the living room.

The first finish of 2017 – and on the first day (!!) is also my first charity quilt of the year. It is a baby quilt that will go to a child in the hospital. It is made up of blocks from a storybook panel cut apart and sewn together with blocks and strips. It’s a fun and colorful little quilt and I love the crayon fabric on the back. As I make these little quilts for children and babies, I always think of the warmth and comfort it will bring them, but more so of the comfort and joy it will bring to their parents.

Yesterday the Hospice quilt makers gathered at the local Hospice office and donated all the quilts we made in 2016. The upper pic is of the quilters and two Hospice employees. It is just so joyful to see how excited they are to receive these quilts and how they look forward to passing them on to patients. The children quilts usually go to a child of a patient that has passed away. It was good to hear that they have very few child patients. We are all looking forward to sewing more quilts for 2017 and will even be welcoming a new member to our group!

Just one more day – Happy new Year! It was a Happy Old Year too! One of my goals when I retired in 2015 was to give more time to my quilting and I did! Wow – 24 finishes. No wonder I’m pooped! The finishes included 6 charity quilts. I think that’s a doable number for the coming year, so I have set that as my goal. Of course, it helps that many of the blocks are made at retreat.

My last few finishes won’t be highlighted until 2017, but how fun to see and remember all I enjoyed doing this year. The projects that remain on my list and the few that I will be adding will be a bit more challenging, so realistically I won’t have as many finishes in 2017, but I do plan to have just as much fun!

Looking at my project listing, I see one or two are missing. I’ll be sure to post those in the new year. Wishing you all a WONDERFUL & CREATIVE SEW-FILLED 2017!

Travel – love it and am so glad that I am now free to do so. But this summer has been a crazy whirlwind! I flew to Chicago for a few days, then a week at the beach in Georgia. I enjoyed 4 days in the NC mountains for a quilt camp, turned around and flew to upstate NY for a special wedding. Now, next week is the Quilt & Sew-In in Blowing Rock, NC. I am so super excited and mostly prepared, but I’ll enjoy the anticipation so much more when I finally catch up on the evil necessity that is laundry.

Barn Quilt at Quilt Camp – Perfect!!

For camp I prepared a leader-ender project which is now in the finishing stages. I want always to have one of these projects prepped because sewing two quilts at once is so much better than just one! This is a scrappy block. A fellow quilter at guild had done one and I immediately had to have the pattern. I have bins of batiks so it was a no brainer to go with batik.

Sewing away at Quilt Camp!

Just had to get one block done just to see it!

Blocks all complete and on the design wall! The sewing plan for the day is to get them all sewn together with the “spacer” blocks, press, trim, and border. I am really, really pumped – can you tell?!

I want to finish this top today so tomorrow I can begin prep for the projects I’ll be taking to the Quilt & Sew-In. They I really, really need to get a few quilt tops ready for the long arm quilter!

Beautiful weather here in the Piedmont of NC! Where I live, we were very fortunate – only some much needed rain from Hurricane Matthew, no flooding or downed trees. The clear sunny skies and high 60’s moved me outdoors to do some much needed yard work. Ughhh! For years I spent sunup to sundown digging, planting and weeding. That passion has been replaced with sewing! After a few hours of that and a bit of housework ( double Ughhh!), I headed for the sewing studio.

Both design walls now have something on them. The first is a postage stamp wall hanging that I’ve wanted to do for some time using Kaffe fabrics. And yes, the squares are one inch finished. It looks pretty skihawed because the rows are not sewn together and it’s on the wall a bit crooked. More neutral squares need to be added to the end of all the rows and then the rows sewn together. This one is done in more of a colorburst style, grouping like colors. I have a pretty cool border planned but the math needs to be done first. “Oh Hubby – you are needed for quilt math detail!”

The second is a background for a wall hanging. I have an applique in mind but haven’t gotten it designed yet. It too will have a border. This project was started years ago and every time I pulled it out, back into it’s project box it went. Not sure why, but it spoke to me this week and have been sewing on it quite a bit. Still no empty project boxes, but projects have been completed and progress is being made.